SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- In the competition among the makers of video game consoles, momentum is building for the Wii from Nintendo among its crucial allies: game developers and publishers.
Inspired by the early success of the Wii, companies that create and distribute games are beginning to shift resources and personnel toward building more Wii games, in some cases at the expense of the competing systems: the PlayStation 3 from Sony Corp. and Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp.
The shift is closely watched because consumers tend to favor systems that have many compelling games. More resources diverted to the Wii would mean more games, and that would translate into more consumers buying Wii consoles later.
Jon Goldman, chairman and chief executive of Foundation 9 Entertainment, an independent game development company, said that he was hearing a growing call for Wii games from the publishers and distributors that finance the games his firm creates.
"Publishers are saying: Instead of spending $15 million or $20 million on one PS3 game, come back to me with five or six Wii pitches," he said.
"We had one meeting two weeks ago with a publisher that was asking for Wii games," said Goldman, who declined to identify the video game publisher that he met. "Three or four months ago, they didn't want to hear word one about the Wii."
The interest in the Wii follows a period of uncertainty about the console by developers and publishers. They were initially cautious because the Wii was less technologically sophisticated, and they worried that consumers would not take to its unorthodox game play, which uses a motion-sensing wand that players move to direct action on the screen.
History gave developers and publishers reason for caution, too. Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s last system, GameCube, was initially a hot seller but ultimately outsold - and by a considerable margin - by PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Also, Nintendo has historically made many of the popular games for its own systems in a way that has discouraged participation by other developers and publishers.
The shift does not represent any shunning of the Xbox or Sony consoles, but rather an elevation of the Wii's status - one that was clear in conversations with developers and publishers at E3, the video game industry's annual trade show in Santa Monica.
